Deadly Dancing

Summary:
A secret and mysterious cult is stealing artifacts across Europe, all with a goal made in the middle ages in mind. And that goal deals with only one thing. Vampires. Bella Swan is the only person in the world with the full knowledge of vampires, and is joined by her fellow agents of Zeta to try and stop the cult from spreading. But when a run in with her past occurs, will her duty be the only thing pushing her to fight?

Notes:
All things from Twilight are Stephenie Meyers. All things from the Sigma Force novels (like the idea of Zeta) are by James Rollins. Everything else is by me.

2. Sweet Dreams

I walked forward blankly, focused mostly on the task that had brought me to Seattle. I really needed a new coat, and Charlie insisted that I go to town and have some fun, get a new coat. He had even given me some money, though most of it had gone towards getting gas for my old truck on the way here. That thing really sucked up fuel.

I looked around, realizing I wasn't sure where I was going. I knew I was in downtown Seattle, and definitely in the shopping district, but I had no idea which store I should go into. I really didn't care either. I didn't mind just walking around though, really. The cool October air stung my skin, and it felt good, taking away the pain deep inside me.

A loud crack echoed above me, and suddenly I found myself pushing a tall man with black hair down to the ground, a bullet hitting the sidewalk and pulling up cement. Screaming erupted around me, and I felt my heart hammering. I had no idea what had just happened. Why had someone just shot this man?

The man below me stared at me in shock, his bright green eyes staring intently into mine. But then something seemed to occur to him, and he jumped up dragging me with him. "Thank you," he whispered to me, still clutching my arm. I just stared at him, unsure of why he was holding onto me. The reason became apparent soon enough.

Another crack echoed, and he pushed me into the wall, away from the deadly ball of metal. It was obvious that whoever was trying to kill this man didn't like witnesses. So now I was a target too. I just stared at the tall man, scared suddenly. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to stay safe, not do anything stupid. Even if I didn't want to remember anything, I had made a promise.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. It wasn't a good thought, or a healthy one. But it made me oddly happy, filling me with a sense of almost release from the pain. I could die here today, and it wouldn't be my fault, so I wouldn't have broken my promise. And then it wouldn't hurt anymore. The pain would be gone. And who cared about my life? I certainly didn't. Only Charlie and Renee would be upset, and they both were probably expecting me to do something stupid to myself. He wouldn't care at all. I shied away from that thought, scared of the pain that it would bring.

"Come on," the man whispered to me, pulling me inside of a bank, breaking me from my self destructive thoughts. He tugged me away from any windows, and let go of me finally. I stared at him for a moment, bewildered. "I'm really sorry," he said, and sounding sincere. "I didn't know that anyone was in Seattle that could be...dangerous. I'm afraid that when you pushed me out of the way, you became part of a game that's too dangerous to be apart of."

"What?" It was all I could say.

He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly, the door to the bank opened and a man in a gray suit entered, with a blue tie and neat, trimmed grey hair. He looked at the man in amusement. "Ah, Commander Alber! So nice to see you again," he said warmly, though i heard the danger in that friendliness. I moved away from him, suddenly feeling like I shouldn't be here. Unfortunately, my small movement caught his attention. "Ah, and who might this be? Is she a new recruit of yours for your...department in DC?"

Commander Alber shook his head. "No. I just ran into her on the streets, quite by accident. I bumped her and wanted to see if she was alright." The lie fell so smoothly from his lips that I almost believed it.

The scary man nodded. "Ah, I see." Then he turned to me. "So miss, you have no idea what Zeta is?"

I cocked my head to the side, feeling a healthy dose of fear, but even more confusion. Beside me, Alber stiffened. What was going on? "Um, isn't it a Greek letter?" I asked timidly. The man nodded his head, though I could see it wasn't the answer he had hoped for.

"Yes...it is. To most people," he added. Then he changed the subject. "What's your name?" "Bella Swan," I answered quietly, sensing that there was no point in lying.

He nodded. "A pretty name," he murmured, before looking over me and the man next to me sadly. "Well Bella, I must say it was nice to meet you, but our time here was cut short. Or at least yours." Alber stiffened even more beside me, and his hand went to clutch my arm again. I suddenly realized how quiet the bank was, how there were no people. What was going on?

A gun was suddenly in the man’s hand, and an odd fury mounted through me. Yes, a few minutes ago I had wanted to die. But now, at the hands of this man? No, I didn't. I had survived more than one attack by vampires, and I was not going to be killed by this human, not like this.

My anger seemed to flow into Commander Alber, who suddenly had me behind him, a gun also pointed at the man in front of us. There also was a knife in my hand. My eyes widened, and I stared forward intently.

My protector didn't hesitate; the trigger was pulled and the man was suddenly in a pool of red on the floor. I gasped, and Alber turned, looking at me sadly. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I was sent here to track down that man, and the people he works with, and I couldn't let him get away alive," he whispered.

I sat up, and pounded my hand down on the alarm clock, cursing it loudly in my head. I groaned and fell back down onto my pillow, wanting to fall back asleep. I rubbed my eyes anyway though, trying to get rid of the sleepiness. I needed to be alert today.

The stupid gala was tonight, for the leading doctors at hospitals around the country. I really had no interest in it, but everyone in my department was required to go. So that meant I had to get ready, which meant this was a whole day of torture.

As I stood up, I wondered how far I could get if I disappeared, just for tonight, and then magically reappeared for our trip to Europe. Everyone would understand, even the director. He knew I hated social events just as much as he did.

Just as I resolved to take a short train trip to NYC, my pager vibrated. I quickly ran over to it, worried that something important came up. I lifted it up quickly to read.

Don't even think about leaving town.

It was from the director. So obviously, it seemed, I would be tortured and forced to go.

Whoop-de-do. Everyone just loved to get to me, didn’t they?

With a sigh, I went into my bathroom. It was connected to my room, which was nice. My whole apartment was nice, actually. I had gotten it about five months ago when I decided I needed someplace to stay other than Jen’s apartment. It had two bedrooms—one of which I converted into my office—two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a small living room space. It was pretty comfortable.

After a very relaxing shower, I quickly toweled off and went into my closet, glancing around for a dress I could wear. I had several dresses for occasions such as this, or when I needed to go undercover somewhere. I had been to several nice dinners before, pretending to be a rich patron.

I decided on wearing a peach colored dress with white stilettos and a white clutch to go with it. The dress was personally a favorite of mine, since I didn’t have to actually go and buy it. It was a gift from a wealthy man in Europe who had asked for Zeta’s help. He had given it to me to wear to a thank you party he had afterwards, claiming that it would make me look amazing. And it did, from the amount of men staring at me. It clung to the body tightly until about the waist, when it smoothly flowed down to the flow. The sleeves went all the way down to my fingers, made of some gauzy material that sparkled. There was a small hole at the ends of the sleeves for my thumbs to go into. Overall, it had a very classical look to it. I had a pearl necklace to go with it, and pearl earrings.

Around noon, after I finally got my hair into a nice looking bun and was just beginning to apply makeup, my phone started vibrating. I walked over to it, curiously opening it up. “Hello?” I asked cautiously.

“Hey Bella, what’s up?” A familiar voice asked.

I smiled, memories of youthfulness washing over me. “Hi, Jacob. Not much really. I’m just getting ready for a gala for my office.” It wasn’t so much a lie as an omission of truth. No one from my past knew that I was really working for a secret organization. They thought I just had gotten lucky after graduating almost seven months early and leaving for the east coast with a great job at a low level government building while I was also taking college classes in the area.

“That must be fun,” Jacob said sarcastically. Then he laughed a little nervously. “So Bella, has Charlie talked to you yet?”

“Talked to me about what?” My curiosity was at its peak. What had Jacob nervous? He was usually a very confident person.

“Oh, um, well…ah, what the heck. It’s better if I tell you so you don’t chew anyone’s head that can’t take it.” I laughed slightly. It was true that Jake could take a bit more than most people, seeing as he could turn into a huge mutant dog like a few others from the Quileute Tribe. I had found out quite by accident, having just come back from a trip to D.C. The wolves thought at first that I was a vampire from the way I had been driving my car. They had come out at me, and I had been…freaked out.

Shaking my head at the memory, I waited for Jake to speak. When he didn’t, I decided to prompt him. “And so you were going to tell me...?”

He sighed. “Well, your dad decided to have a super big Thanksgiving dinner I guess, and he wants you to know now so you can come to it.”

“Why would I get upset about that? I don’t mind coming home,” I said, frowning. “I had actually been planning to go home for thanksgiving anyways.”

“Really?” Jacob said in surprise. “Charlie thought you just really didn’t want to come home. I mean, you haven’t been here since you found out about me and stuff…”

“I’ve just been really busy Jake,” I said, sighing. “I know I haven’t been home, and I’ve really wanted to pop in for a visit. I just haven’t had time between schoolwork out here and running around for my job. It was hard enough to get the week of thanksgiving off.”

Laughter came from the other line. “If you didn’t get such good pay, I would have told you to go and quite right now.”

I laughed as well. “And I wouldn’t have listened to you. I happen to really like my job. I’m modeling my courses after it so I can get higher positions,” I lied. It came out smoothly no, not even a tremble. I lied daily now, and was quite used to it.

“Alright. I’ll see you later, then,” he said. I said my goodbyes as well, and hung up. I put the phone down into the dock, and sighed. I hated having to lie to the people who didn’t deserve it. But they also didn’t need to know the truth. I’d rather have them in the dark than in danger.

Well, not as much danger. Vampires and werewolves were enough for any one person. Lucky me, getting humans on the list as well.